Senate Republicans on Thursday blocked the potential bailout for the auto industry. See Herzenhorn, Senate Abandons Auto Bailout, NYTimes, Dec. 12, 2008. this sentence in the Times story tells it all-- negotiations were "deadlocked over Republican demands for steep cuts in pay and benefits by the United Automobile Workers union in 2009. " The Republicans don't care if millions lose their jobs, businesses crash, and ordinary Americans are hit with a depression, so long as they can bust a union. Meantime, their tale of too-high pay is a misleading deception like so many others. Autoworkers make decent wages, but they don't have feathernests that are implied by the Republicans wanting steep cuts in pay and benefits. The Walmartization of the workforce of this country is happening without the Republicans in Congress shoving the few decently paid workers down the well.
As the New York Times editorial notes today, the question is "What's Plan B?"
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